the galah

ive never bagged manawatu myself.Their stake level seem about right. from those comments you don't seem aware that the grass racks are the races that get the high turnovers in nz and are the meetings that run at a profit. its the income from the grass track meeetings that hrnz will need to continue, to cross subsidise the loss making clubs.

but if you look at the hrnz board and the ceo,they all have well credentialed backgrounds. so,.business success or not,does it make any difference. isn't the most important thing ,we need people who understand what drives the harness product, how to maintain and maximise the profit making parts of the industry.,while mitigating the level of any loss making parts of the industry. in other words ,just common sense is needed. its clear who the industry leaders surround themselves with and who has their ear. then you have the likes of the fella peden. Its like he gets the word from mr steele,who says something like,"matt can you come up with another hair brained spending binge,but this time for the people in the cheap seats,to keep them quiet'. Then peden comes up with some scheme ,so in effect they are not just overspending on the lords,but on the peasants as well. and to be fair to them,it works.It placates the peasants. They too think of how they pay the bills due today and not 3 years time. oh well,i had better get my focus back on the gallops at cromwell today. Money to be made on south island gallops as i have said before,they always have good betting races. Just as good as the grass track harness meetings.

yes,i agree with that. but you haven't commented on what i said about the strength of harness racing, used to be the level of grass root particpation.(its not now) I'm not sure whether you've ignored that because it can't be argued with. but its obvious you simply believe prioritsing the elite over the grass root people is good policy. And everyone agrees the sport is in serious decline. so its simple,the current policies have contributed to the sports decline. Simple as that. and just as simple,is the point i keep making to you,which you have no answer to. that is,when hrnz have spent all the entain cash and forbury money and cash reserves,which they currently are doing,well what happens then . Because your argument is always the rich and the elite need to be financially rewarded and prioritised. so if we extrapolate out your argument,for me,the logical conclusion is you must believe, the rich leave the sport when the money runs out. your the one saying without all the big stakes and bonuses,the sport will lose them.I'm the one saying that won't happen,your the one saying it will. so where is the sport going to be in 10 years time,as hrnz will have spent that money well before then. Maybe what will happen in 10 years is hrnz can sell up auckland,sieze their assets,promise to keep the monet in the north then cunningly work around that to support the south island as that will be the only place which can generate a profirt to keep the sport going.Just saying,in 10 years time,i bet my botto9m $,that is what some peopkle will be pushing and the reason why the industry eneded up considering that will have been because of poor fiscal responsibilty in the now.

I will explain ,in a different way,why i think your thinking is flawed and why those in charge of HRNZ have lost perspective of reality. i actually believe poor decsiion making has already undermined the sport,beyond repair, the poor policies going back many years. The strehgth of harness racing in nz had always been the level of grass root participation far outweighs the level of participation of the big players. in other words,the numbers that the grass roots people contributed to the sport,whether it be as owners,punters,sponsors,breeders,licence holders,everything used to by far far greater than the overall contribution of the high end players. all of those grass root people had many friends ,relatives etc who followed their prograss. But that level of participation has been undermined by many things. things happening outside the industries control have significantly impacted the grass root level numbers,but the problem is ,the decision makers could often have mitigated the damage through better policies,but they haven't. And now we have decision makers prioritising on steroids,the people you say deserve more support than the ever diminshing grass roots level people. where the grass roots level have also failed themselves,is they have been unable to psuh their cause as a collective and therefore the big players voices are the ones always being heard.But hrnz should have recognised that if they were indeed leaders,instead of pandering to the rich and the elite. Thats whats played out. its reality. it hasn't been the wealthy or the millionaires who are leaving the sport has it. you can keep saying they will lose those blokes from the sport if they don't throw more millions there way,i don't believe you. What will lose those millionaires participation is when they see they are in a sport which has lost the public and the grass root number of particpants that he sport once had. if you were a multi millionaire,would you rather win a big race for a lower stake,but with a big public following or would you rather win a big race with a big stake and very few watching or seeing you r achievement. you say its the latter,i say its the former.

saying theres always a way,ignores reality to whats actually is happening. what i have read,from people like myself,was a criticism of entain pushing hrnz into focusing on the 2 year bonuses, which very obviously benefitted small high profile interest groups ,with the biggest beneficiary being the man in charge of entain at the time.Thats just a fact. Also we were told by hrnz the 2 year old bonuses would lead to increased numbers being bred, but the first year proved that was a miserable failure. But as to entain money that went with the government deal,no one has criticised that. its how that money is being used by hrnz that is the subject of the criticism. i don't know where you get this idea that stud farms and millionaires are going to put more money into sponsorship. that seems unrealistic thinking. have you not noticed that sponsorship seems to be declining in the sport. Look at the races names and its obvious. Also,its also so obvious,that if you run more and more races ,then less and less races will have sponsors.Thats just a fact as well. and these stud farms and millionaires that you refer to,again,have a look at where the money from bonuses and high end stakes are going.They may well spend a lot of money on their horses,but hrnz gives them preferential treatment and they are the ones getting the money that hrnz throws around. you would know the people who own the horses that come to nz and take away all the stakemoney are owned by the rich.Whether it be bonuses or the high end races,the rich benefit and the average person doesn't. Thats in a nutshell is why the indutsry has lost all the small timers who collectively formed the strong base that used to exist within the industry.They're gone,as have their mares. Again just reality. as to slot races. You would know hrnz is propping them uip with stakemoney that would be better kept for when hrnz run short on money. Cambridge is in a financial hole that hrnz seem intent on bailing them out of,and part of the reason for that hole is the slot races. So you can advocate away as much as you like about slot races,but thats advocating for more bail out money to go to whoever runs them. you always try to be positive,but wishing doesn't change reality.

trackside just showed a shot of oamaru right now,4 minutes before race 1 starts.. 1 car in the public car park,1 person in the grandstand above birdcage and about half a dozen floating around the main grandstand. a beautiful day in oamaru.

Calmbeforethestorm now only paying $4.60. it was still paying $9 when i looked last night. actually thats about what it should have opened at,but still it hasn't trotted all the way on race day yet,so who knows with it. if i was looking at that field,i would say everyone in it would be hoping they run second,not win,as the way the handicapping system works the winner will then have to run in their next start,against horses like prince teka,brianna,holly highlander,etc. really whoever wins today,thats the end of their racing earning potential for 12 months,possibly a lifetime. its a real indictment on the current way races are programmed.The programmers don'tseem to care whether they retain 1 win horses for racing. so in race 1 today,everyone will be driving to run 2nd at best.Probably morrie aftom may be trying the hardest,so maybe it wins.Who knows.10 minutes time we will find out

i'm on the same page as well about larsens driving. I've always thought larsens got a reasonable tactical brain,but horses don't quite run for him like they do for some others. yesterday he had to be on a downer anyway. He would have been upset about what happened with montage,a horse he had driven many times.Wasn't everyone in that race lucky to avoid montage when he faltered so badly. It just happened that the horse trailing montage, driven by b orange, had dropped off a couple of lengths off his back and the fella 3 back the inside was happy sitting there and not following montage.B orange reacted very quickly and other drivers behind followed suit Quite fortunate indeed. so larsen,with montage in the back of his mind, he drove his trotter xerion,gave it the perfect run,but it seemed to struggle from a lap out and was disappointing. Xerions a horse that i've pointed out previously was kept going over winter when its form was getting worse and it appeared the horse was getting more run down.He did finally give it a freshen up and after that,it won last week,bit it wasn't as good yesterday. So he would have hopped on his 2 year old on a bit of a downer,and he produced a dumb drive. actually i started a thread on him a year or so ago and expressed the opinion,horses seemed to run much better for his son when he came back for a holiday and drove his fathers horses,but then his son went back to victoria. Larsen is a trainer that buyers should pay a bit more for his horses.As hosn horses seem to always go on and do a good job when sold. Theres been some in queensland like that.So hes a good honest trainer.

you end your post with a comment that seems to accept stake money will be reduced significantly because of the overspending going on at the moment. while you've also expressed the opinion that the current overspending is a good thing,as its necessary to maintain current participation levels. So the obvious question is,if you believe maintaining the current stake levels and bonuses and big payout races is necessary to maintain current participation levels,then why don't you think thats going to be relavant when they run out of the money to do that in 3 years time. Its like,you promote policies that will have a far greater negative impact on the industry in years to come,than was necessary had we had leadership who were fiscally responsible.And you seem to acknowledge that. and even if you think the current policies are working,can you then explain how that thinking lines up with the stats that show declining licence holder numbers,mares being bred,field size numbers,turnovers,on course attendance,etc,etc,etc.

sad to see montage pulled up today Always runs an honest race and was doing that again until he faltered.i hope hes ok.sad when you see that happen. Seems to have run every southand meeting for the last 2 years.

just watched the first race at invercargill. the non win trot . the fields are small down there,but they have the same serial gallopers each week. majestic challen one of them.I just watch it and have a chuckle each week.. I did back it a few times in the past,but gave up a while ago. Here we are a year later and it still does the same thing. Gets grumpy pre start,always runs like its got something going on in its mouth that really annoys the hack out of it.if it does go away,which is a big if these days,as soon as it spots a galloper in front of it, its stuffed because when its asked to go a bit wider its sore mouth gets the better of it and it gallops. it has to be one of the grumpiest horses racing in nz.Yet its been able to win $23,000 in stakes.I wonder if it will ever win a race?

i see its in tomorrow and is paying $1.85 on the ff. Its only got 6 other rivals and only 1 of those has placed previously. gee,its not a strong field.Morrie afton paying $2.25 the other favorite. bizza too only paying $1.18 to run in top 2. personally i think the prices are ridiculous,but then again,what else is in there that could win.Maybe canlmbeforethestorm paying $10 could win,but it breaks all the time and that stable used to prefer to place and not win.But it does have a driver on who likes to win. who knows,something will win though.

there must be a point when they hit rock bottom,maybe this is the year,maybe not. Either way the numbers being bred in the last 2-3 years will not be able to sustain the level of racing they currently have. its just common sense that if they are struggling with so many small fields now,imagine what it will be like when they take away 10-20% of the numbers coming through. thats why hrnz should be planning how to adjust to whats coming.its understandable they have been trying to encourage people to breed their mares in the last couple of years,even if they have failed ,but they surely should be transparent about what there plan is , in the future, to adjust the racing calendar to come into line with less horse numbers.Or maybe they don't have one and will just wing it

i don't think you can use bonus cash or bonus bets on tote pools,but yes the bonus bets and bonus cash is inflating ff turnovers. as you and i have pointed out before,if the tab assess the need for restictions based solely on whether a punter is profitable on ff betting or not,they fail to factor in the big pictute of the overall contribution to the racing industry by each individual punter,,whether it be tote betting takeouts the tab receive,ownership,sponsorship,etc,etc. and the tab/entain have demonstrated they are willing to cut off their nose to spite their face type of thing. I can only assume that within the tab there are people who receive bonuses based around how much profit they can gwenerate within ff and those people couldn't care less that they are losing a punters tote turnover because of their decisions,because it doesn't effect the assesment of their bonuses. its the only explanation i could come up with for what i call the level of stupidity as regards some of their decisions around individuals in the past. i think your right. clearly they have a strategy to kill off all tote each way tote betting,especially tote place bettingi. The pools are so pitiful sometimes that theres simply no point in having place bets on the tote. The tote betting,especially the tote place betting,these days is just for the $1 ew punter. If you used to spend a hundred or two a race,or now days even a $20 place bet,then you would have flagged tote betting long ago as you cut the odds too much. and the powers that be still haven't said what the total betting or attendance figure were for nz cup day.Obviously they can't spin that to make it sound positive enough for them. And i wonder how the breeding numbers are going.They must one day hit rock bottom,but that doesn't seem to have happened yet.I wonder how bad this year will be. Drive past a couple of the studs and i think you will see the answer.Where have all the horses gone?

i watched the interview and my take was exactly the same as yours. The entain man expressed empathy and tried to create the impression everything entain does is in the best overall interests of the nz racing industry,but reality is you could tell from his words thats his focus is on whats best for entains bottom line.And so it should be,he works for entain. but whats best for entain is not always whats best for nz racing.A lot is but a lot isn't.Media and racing adminsitrators tend to mislead on that. and this entain bloke lumped all nz racing under the same umbrella. Well,we all know its different. we all know one of the major failings of the current hrnz decision making is they place the same weight on the relevance and importance of factors that apply to the galloping code as to applying to harness racing.This entain fella kept empathising the need for racing to be based around the main tracks and we all know gallopings main tracks are where the nz population numbers are. And we all know that perhaps the biggest flaw in the current hrnz leaderships thinking ,is they think harness racing should work the same.In other words our current administrators make decision making around what they think shouild be the main driving factors(e.g.population),ignoring the realities. so that entain man and entain will do what they do,but its what hrnz do that really counts,and most can see the current leadership are dreamers,not realists. as to entain cutting back on the rebates. the nz tab have been whittling away at that for the last 5 years,even prior to entain. people who say they should have a blanket restriction on winning punters on ff,really have no idea whatsoever of what they are talking about. I have given specific examples of why that type of thinking is ridiculaous. every punter has different spends and different pools they invest in and decisions should have been made around what was best for the overall tab bottom line,and that means have different approaches for different people based on the circumstances the same applies to the rebates. For example,if someone is getting $10,000 a month in rebates from tote spend,then obviously the tab will be receiving around $30,000-$40,000 a month in tote % takeout from each dollar invested,depending on what bet type the spend is on. So if that punter was say generating an average overall profit of $5000 per month ,which included the rebates in that persons profit loss ledger,then if the tab take aways the rebates,the tab have just made that person now return a loss of $5000. So whats going to happen.Your going to lose that customers tote spend and the $30-40,000 tab income that went with it.In other words to save $10,000 ,you cost yourself $40,000 So there is real bad down sides to the tab knocking the rebates on the head. It doesn't effect me. They reneged on a verbal agreement they had with me a few years ago so i just stopped betting as without the rebates,it wasn't worth the efoort. So your going to get people doing the same thing again,and amny of them are much bigger punters than i was.

one of the other pre race interviews yesterday,with ben hope ,resulted in what i thought were odd comments. he was commenting on his drive on muscle mountain in the dominion on cup day. He said he didn't give the horse the run it deserved and indicated he felt he had let the horse down. Now i'm all for just saying what happened all the time,no sugar coating something when someone has made a bad tactical decision,especially if they aren't trying. But if you watched the video,he really had no other options ,other than to cover more ground than he wanted in the first round. Its just the way it turned out. Hopes won 39 races on that horse and well over a million $ ,but he was beating himself up because he strikes a race where hes dictated where he settled by his draw and how the other divers drove early.An unrealistic post race analysis by him, i thought. oh well,i suppose it gives an insight into how theres pressure in race driving and that all drivers deal with it in their own way.

it looked pretty inexperienced .Its gait wasn't the best early and it got a fair way back,but ran on ok.It looks like it would gallop next time if amongst horses early or get too far back again,so i wouldn't be backing it to win for a few starts until you've seen a bit more of it.She did have a few looks to see what was happening in front of her,but only she could answer why.But i think it just looked like an inexperienced horse not up to running in the money just yet.

the fine was related to his use of the whip. so had nothing to do with whether he was clever or not tactically. Also,i just had a look at his drive the level of the fine and the suspension borders on the ridiculous to me. I think the same about the L mccarthy drive in the cup as well.. Again,just so over the top for what they actually did.

k cameron earned an easy $3500 last night in the nz trotting derby. sometimes you see horses lining up in those races that have no chance,just to get the starting money. Horses that do that are often given mentally and physically draining runs and you wonder why they bother. But kyle cameron seemed to have it sussed. He went 400m ,not sure why he restrained his horse,but it seemd to resent it a wee bit and galloped and the horse settled about 40m behind the field. So cameron completed a lap,eased it down and pulled it up. As he came off the track i guess he was thinking,i wish i could earn $3500 that easy every week. Talking about drives. the last couple of weeks have seen some very aggressive driving. It must be hard on some horses to be driven that way,but it makes for exciting racing. personally i think the 2 best drivers were the ricky may drive on spirit downunder and the mark purdon drive on arafura last night. may could have gone with john dunn on scrunch when he applied the prssure so far from home,but instead he realised the finsihing post was at the end of the straight and he nursed his horse and it responded really well for him when scrunch hit the wall with 200m to go. Actually,it was no surprise scrunch got beaten last night as he was backing up on such a hard run.Thats the thing about betting. On recent racing scrunch would have won last nights race easy,but when they have been driven so har just a week before you know it will take a toll,you just don't know how much. The arafura drive. Mark purdon used his cunningness to recognise they had gone too hard early,yet if he made a mid race move he would have gone too soon.So he waited,knowing he was positioned to capitalise onthe others up front,who had gone too soon,getting tired. i didn't back either of them myself,but i thought they were the 2 best drives of the last couple of weeks.

i agree with what you say. cambridge,auckland,and southland can't continue in their current form . They need restructuring,whether it be their racing calendar or their venues.The betting product they often provide is simply not worth having a bet on.. its a total mystery why nz administrators think running more and more meetings at a loss ,is good for the industry long term.It makes no sense. the number that run at grass tracks will decline in the future. it a given that will happen. The declining numbers being bred will flow through in years to come as will the aging trainers disappearing and the reducing number of licence holders. The focus of hrnz has not been on this one area which generates a profit and the industry is certain to pay the price for losing the confidence of those who particpated at the likes of grass tracks. your right about the same old horses that go around in southland .Some of those horses just get sick of racing or they are lined up when their manners would say no,but they do it anyway. the only thing working in new zealaands favour is australian harness racing ,especially victoria,are going so poor they dont import as many new zealand horses. lowering the qualifying times would only work if they had a better handicapper/race programmer who catered for all levels.They don't so that won't help.And thats also partly because people realise its too costly to keep horses that don't earn money. perople breeding more? Thats never going to happen. Do people realise just how many mares people have got rid of in recent years. No one wants them and people who breed the bread and butter horses have felt left behind by current policy makers.. Its so sad. but thats the reality. the answer to fixing nz harness racing and making it sustainable,i believe is, replacing current administrators with new administrators who look 5-10 years ahead and who recognise the importance of the profit making sectors of the industry. Thats where it must start

fair enough to have that opinion, but the difference was this year the cup carnival had several really high quality australian horses including the young trotters. They dominated cup week like never before,winning the main pacing races,the main trotting races,the 2 and 3 year old trotting races. Everything they started in during cup week they won.The only ones they didn't dominate was the 2 and 3 year old pacing races,as they had no australian trained horses in them.. take out those aussies,and this year was not any better horse flesh than any other year. I've been around long enough to hear people say,year after year.best racing ever. And why did they come here more this year,because the stake money.Australia is in decline,so they come here to cherry pick while nz has administrators that throw millions at the high end races.And we all know that can't last. Take a horse like gus.He had been going great in australia for the last 3 years. But do you know what.He is the best in queensland and had won 16 of his 42 starts over there ,in the last 3 years. But he can earn more than double his lifetime earnings in just 2 start here.

yes,there was some good racing last night,but you have to be kidding if you think nz harness racing is going strong. Every indicator,whether it be mares being bred,licenceholder numbers,public attendance on course ,turnover numbers,the number of small fiields we are seeing,etc,etc. Every single indicator shows nz harness racing is the opposite of going strong. then as to the nz horses performances. Have you ever seen the level, of dominance by the australians over the new zealand horses before? the reason i point this out is because you have done exactly what the powers that be and the media do and want you to do. That is judge nz harness racings state of health ,on the one off nz cup meeting and the likely good crowd numbers (even if they are also in decline from previous years) at some of the country grass track meetings over the next couple of months,as long as the weather is nice,. the positivity that happens over cup week and around xmas ,happens every year. But even those indicators appear to be going in the wrong direction. So we get these,racing is going strong comments every year around this time,then its back to reality and for the remaining 9 months of the year the talk of industry decline continues. so why is it,unrealistic comments about the state of the industry ,are damaging to the industry as a whole. Well,its because,to those in charge such comments justify their poor decision making and perpetuates the poor decision making.

having a musician on like the one last night ,was cetainly different,but i found it entertaining in a positive way. Obviously mitch james is a well known musician,but these blokes should go with whats natural for them even if its outside the norm for the average trackside viewer,as being themselves is what makes them entertaining. is what they do a suitable look for the trackside channel. well for me i would say ,definitely,yes. what i like about them is ,when they're being themselves,they seem really genuine happy people who enjoy having a play on the punt and taking those who invest in their betting pools along for the ride.. I don't think people should focus too much on whether they win or lose or how much they bet at a time,as that doesn't seem to be the point,the point is they are there to have this good time and from entains perspective ,show the general public that you can put $10 in a betting pool,have a nights entertainent, as well as follow bets in every race. thats what it used to be like when you went to the races 25 years ago. The people serious about the sport like those who watch the races on a thursday night would be there, but also lots of people who went along to the races to have a good time and not focus much on whether they won or lost on the punt,were there. You want the latter to give the sport a boost...

i'm not sure whether you have got the point i've been making going by your post. They got good fields in the middle of the southland winter by pumping up the stakes. So if you have no problem with them doing that as it appears,then the obvious solution to the numbers on the latest sunday and wednesday meetings,would have been to pump up the stake for them,,because that would have guaranteed them better numbers. Whether it be the middle of winter factor ,or the 4 day back up factor,both can be neutralised by artificial manipulation via increased stakes.Problem solved. Now i'm saying hrnz will go broke doing that,but if people who think the southern surge was good,then why aren't they presenting a consistent argument, instead of saying,look at the poor numbers yesterday?

the southern surge races in southland over winter was just yet another example of HRNZ throwing money at a problem and artificially getting a short term solution through the injection of money in the form of higher stakes. Theres nothing organic about hrnz's solutions,they are all artificial and once the money goes the problems will still exist and then what.Its just dumb thinking in my opinion. And when hrnz got criticism for their poilicies of prioritising funding auckland, 2 year old bonuses and high end stakes.What was their answer.It was to placate the criticism by using more of hrnz funds to over subsidise races like the southern surge or the stallions under $5000, $60,000 day at ashburton. I mean,how is going from overspending to support the big players and the elite horses,to overspending at both ends ,how does that make any sense.Again,it just seems such a dumb strategy long term as they will just run out of money quicker. You say southland need to race 12 months of the year and use the success of the southern surge to support that thinking.All it proved was everyone is out for themselves in the short term and they all want their piece of the gravy train before it runs out and that they are willing to give up their principled criticism for just a few extra short term $. And mikeynz. Your the bloke who points out the unfortunate number of 6 horse fields, yet here you are saying you support a policy for southland that has contributed to 6 horse fields. I mean,your comments are contradictory.